Ready Player One is a pop culture phenomenon. A dazzling whirling spectacle of music, film and pop icons flashing up on the screen at 100 mph. It was fun watching all that whiz by, but that may have detracted somewhat from the overall experience.

Still though, I liked it, but I suspect that the breakneck speed and fast-paced action may have been deliberate. I thought of watching it again, even as I watched it unfold, but this time in either 3D or IMAX format. Don't get me wrong, it is good, very good. I rate it slightly below Black Panther in overall movie wow factor, but I think that the audience I experienced with would argue with me on that count. Everyone in the theater seemed to enjoy it. Well, so did I, for the most part.

There were plenty of laughs, mainly set around the two lead characters and their awkward "Disney" romance. Spielberg kept it light and airy, no real dangerous situations except for a few action sequences that put our heroes in danger of being "zeroed out" but nothing really deep. There was a subplot of a rebellion and of never revealing one's true identity online (a wise idea). But I really liked our little hero Wade Watts, the teen who quests to find the 3 keys to the "Oasis",
a virtual reality world where anyone can be anything.

He served as our humble narrator and I found it quite useful since he explained the rules of the game, and kept us, the audience, informed of the goings-on. The movie runs a little over two hours, but I wish their would have been more set up in the real world, so we could get a feeling for the deeply depressing real world and why everyone looked to escape. I also really enjoyed the character of Halladay, played by Oscar winner Mark Rylance, a sort of composite computer-gamer-genius-inventor and resident trillionaire. He was totally fun and inventive with his portrayal of the Gates-Jobs-Wojo type character. He kept the movie grounded.

Spielberg did some job placing all those pop culture references and sprinkling them throughout the movie, Bravo on that. It was fun pointing to all the cool stuff up on the screen.

Spoiler Alert!

There was even something Firefly related. See if you could spot it.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Will it set box office records, not sure, but it was indeed fun to watch.

I had seen and posted the date in another thread, noticing it was a Thursday.
But I hadn't noticed it was Good Friday and Easter.
Is there a reason for that, are there resurrections or multiple lives in the film?
RP1 was originally slated to open in mid-December, but was pushed back to not conflict with The Last Jedi.
So, shifting from Christmas to Easter.

I sensed this was the sort of entertainment that Valerian was trying to be.

Questions inside spoiler field:

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I understand it is imagination, but I don't get the basis of driving a motorcycle backwards, as fast as you can.
Looks like one version of a midrange bulk transport model Firefly was made with guns. Is this the shout out that is being mentioned?

Does anybody think that Ogden was prohibited from playing for the keys? I noticed his avatar sometimes did not obey commands, which allowed key clues to be accidentally revealed to Parzival.
I watched RP1 back-to-back with Tomb Raider, so was comfortable seeing Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, although in different films. Also saw Hannah John-Kamen in each film.

Hannah John-Kamen - first noticed her in Killjoys. Very watchable. and nice to see her doing more on screen. Although, to be honest, when I first saw her in RP1, w/ her hair as it was I immediately thought of Thulsa Doom Probably not the look she was going for, at least I hope not.

JSF - I hadn't thought of the points you brought up, but of course, it's " make believe " A few other thoughts..

Gadgets and avatars can be modified, so seeing a Firefly w/ guns isn't all that big a deal. There are specs for a militarized version Firefly, so whether it was another vessel or Serenity in battle mode, it's kinda no biggie to me.

Also...

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I know, again, it's a movie, but the biggest flaws, if it is that - how did they know how to recreate the office so perfectly ? Wade had only been there via him being a hologram, so I get that he could have gotten the passcode, but every detail of the room, AND then have the time + ability to hack the feed into their own ' holo-deck' as it were, so the real life Sarrento didn't for a second doubt that Wade and Daito had waltzed into corporate , w/ guns, totally unnoticed ? The guy picked up on Wade's emotion suppression mode, yet can't decipher a CGI office and his own ? Unlikely.

Wade breaks rule 1, and what undeniably he should have been well aware of - never reveal your RL name and location while on the net / in the Oasis. That he falls for Art3mis so fast and so hard... kinda makes him look like a total noob. He could have been like 12 and she 37, for all they both knew...

Who the hell is Online Industries thinking they can send goon squads to hunt down citizens or imprison anyone they damn well please ? I guess that's ' just how things are' , in the future. Lovely.

Cells that can open up from then inside, by design, which allowed Art3mis to get easy access to everything she needed to in order for Wade and the good guys to win. As if every corporate HQ has a basement full of actual prison cells.

Quote:Originally posted by AURaptor:
Certainly could and likely will re-watch.

Hannah John-Kamen - first noticed her in Killjoys. Very watchable. and nice to see her doing more on screen. Although, to be honest, when I first saw her in RP1, w/ her hair as it was I immediately thought of Thulsa Doom Probably not the look she was going for, at least I hope not.

JSF - I hadn't thought of the points you brought up, but of course, it's " make believe " A few other thoughts..

Gadgets and avatars can be modified, so seeing a Firefly w/ guns isn't all that big a deal. There are specs for a militarized version Firefly, so whether it was another vessel or Serenity in battle mode, it's kinda no biggie to me.

Also...

Select to view spoiler:

I know, again, it's a movie, but the biggest flaws, if it is that - how did they know how to recreate the office so perfectly ? Wade had only been there via him being a hologram, so I get that he could have gotten the passcode, but every detail of the room, AND then have the time + ability to hack the feed into their own ' holo-deck' as it were, so the real life Sarrento didn't for a second doubt that Wade and Daito had waltzed into corporate , w/ guns, totally unnoticed ? The guy picked up on Wade's emotion suppression mode, yet can't decipher a CGI office and his own ? Unlikely.

Wade breaks rule 1, and what undeniably he should have been well aware of - never reveal your RL name and location while on the net / in the Oasis. That he falls for Art3mis so fast and so hard... kinda makes him look like a total noob. He could have been like 12 and she 37, for all they both knew...

Who the hell is Online Industries thinking they can send goon squads to hunt down citizens or imprison anyone they damn well please ? I guess that's ' just how things are' , in the future. Lovely.

Cells that can open up from then inside, by design, which allowed Art3mis to do get easy access to everything she needed to in order for Wade and the good guys to win. As if every corporate HQ has a basement full of actual prison cells.

I didn't have any problem with Guns version Firefly, but our introduction to the verse made such a point of it in TTJ.

Loyalty booths didn't seem outrageous. Before Parzival winning, they were legal to connect to Oasis. Part of their legality may have included emergency escape requirements.

Well, there were 2 ' shout outs ', at least, that I saw. One would have been fine, but 2 was even better. Especially the 2nd, longer shot

As for the motorcycle... umm, that's just what Art3mis chose as her ride. The means of transport wasn't so much the point though. She could have picked anything, I guess...

Select to view spoiler:

Are you referring to the 1st challenge ? Riding her cycle ' backwards' was just the means of how the race was won. I'm not sure what is problematic for you, as the clue from Halliday was to ' step on the gas and go backwards ' , or there abouts. He was saying not everything has to be new and changed for it to be awesome, and he longed for the ability to turn back the clock as it were.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

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